The Ted Talk by Marcia Laycock

The buzz of the audience made it clear that much was expected. Excitement hummed through us all as the evening’s coordinator took the stage to introduce the main speaker. I had read some of his books – some I liked, some not so much – so I was unsure what to expect from him as the plenary speaker at Write! Canada, the country’s largest writers’ conference, held June 11-14 in Guelph Ontario.

When he took the microphone and admitted that he hadn’t really prepared a speech for that night, I groaned inwardly. I’d heard speakers say that before and had to endure a rambling talk that had little focus and not much depth. But this speaker, on this night, would prove different.

Later it would be referred to as “The Ted Talk,” and it was the highlight of the conference for many of us because the speaker, best-selling author Ted Dekker, spoke directly from his heart about his life as a young missionary kid, his life as he became obsessed with writing and his life as success brought him to his knees and led him to surrender completely to God.

These are some of the things I jotted down that night. I trust they will stir your hearts to ponder:

*Writing itself is a process to peace.

*Your fear will keep you chained – move forward on the beautiful path of surrender.

*You are a writer for your own transformation, not for your success.

*Let go of the need to be better than you are and discover your true beauty right now through your writing.

*Your objective is to live life, not publish books so focus on your writing as a means to knowing God.

*Writing becomes “magical” when you find the light in your own darkness.

*If you are not being transformed the story will not be about transformation.

*We are just kids playing at making sand castles that will be swept away. But we are left with what has happened in us and what we find within us – God himself.

*Find the greatest conflict in yourself right now and write it. Bleed on the page.

Ted’s talk was recorded by Swordfish Digital (email conferences@swordfishdigital.com) and will be available on The Word Guild’s Website in the near future. I highly recommend it to all writers of faith.

Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. Her second novel, A Tumbled Stone was short listed in the contemporary fiction category of The Word Awards in 2013 and this year her work was short listed in three categories. Marcia also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded here. Visit Marcia’s Website 

New Explorations in Writing by Sandi Somers

“The real voyage of discovery consists…in having new eyes.”  ~ Marcel Proust

This month’s prompt asks you to explore, traveling in new directions. Perhaps you tend to write in only one particular genre, or in one particular voice and style for a particular audience. This month become an explorer by selecting a genre or a voice/style that you haven’t worked in before (or rarely). Write for a different audience. Do a little research. Then tell us how you saw with new eyes, what you discovered and if you would consider further writing in this genre.

I tried Flash Fiction, and here’s my experiment.

My niece Joelle, a teacher, couldn’t find foam chips to fill large cushions her mom was making for her students. She had looked everywhere.

“Maybe you’ll just have to drive to the US for some,” I suggested.

“Oh, sure, sure,” she said. “I can just see the customs agent checking through all those bags for drugs.”

Suddenly I visualized a scene: Joelle at the border as the customs agent, head and arms in the bags, searched through those foam chips. Finally in frustration and without finding drugs, he banged the stamp in her passport and waved Joelle on…with foam chips, unknown to him, all over his face.

“Now if I were a novelist,” I told her, “I would add that anecdote to my novel.”

A short time later while thinking about this month’s blog topic, I decided to write Joelle’s story as flash fiction. I didn’t need to be a novelist to write it.

The story grew as I added incidents from my own experiences and observations at border crossings and airports. And as I had filled figure skating costumes with foam chips before, I knew how full of static they could become.

I enjoyed writing. Similes and hyperbole came easily. The flash-fiction style of dramatic introduction, complications throughout and surprise ending opened my eyes to how I could write more effective scenes in my ongoing writing.

Will I try flash fiction again? Yes, definitely, as I discover other inspiring prompts. Who knows what this may lead to?

And now over to you. I can’t wait to read your experiments and discoveries this month.

Great on Paper by Susan Barclay

My love of words and stories began early. My grandparents first took me to the library when I was three and I was introduced to books and story times. From then on, you couldn't keep me away from libraries and books. I was at almost every library program offered, and devoured books voraciously.

Some of my first memories are of me sitting on our family's front porch and making up songs. I wrote quite a bit of bad poetry, but I'm still not sorry my mother kept it for me in binders that I can go back and re-read today. It makes me smile to see those budding efforts and to know how far I've come.

Not so great on paper (sample from grade 3)

In school, English and creative writing were my favourite subjects, and I excelled in them. My grade two teacher can still quote the closing line to a story I wrote for her class (okay, it must have been better than the grade 3 sample above). In upper elementary years I remember writing about subjects like Hernan Cortez for Social Studies and the colourful mandrill for Science. Later I fell in love with the pun and titled one junior high story Steph's Sweet, Swede Dreams (a play on 'sweet, sweet dreams' in case you don't get it). The plot was of a romantic nature and my protagonist in love with a Swede.

In high school I had an amazing English teacher, Mrs. Perle Michna. You either loved or hated her (she could be strict), and I adored her. Her passion for literature only served to heighten the flames of my own, although I was a bit jealous that she called my best friend her 'Miranda' (a character from Shakespeare's The Tempest) when that wasn't even her name! I aspired to be like Mrs. Michna so much that when it came time to choose my college affiliation at the University of Toronto, I chose Victoria, her alma mater. Imagine my dismay when she told me I was mistaken; her alma mater had been University College!

I enjoyed my years at U of T and Vic nonetheless. I had the good fortune to take a Shakespeare course with the illustrious Northrop Frye, although I confess I don't remember a single word he said (I do still have my notes!). I only remember feeling extremely self-conscious riding the elevator with him one day. Word had it that he had no patience for small talk. I don't know if that was true or not, but I certainly was too intimidated to initiate a more meaningful conversation with the great man.

After completing my undergraduate degree, I went on to get my Master of Library and Information Science. From there I began a career in public libraries. A parallel life to the one I wanted as a writer. I don't recall writing for pleasure or publication for the first six years of my career. Monthly reports explaining how I'd spent my work time and Youth Advisory Group newsletters were about as creative as I got.

Okay, that's a lie, albeit unintentional. I just remembered that I also dated during those years and there were some poems, letters and cards of a romantic nature. You'd call those writing for pleasure, no? Some pieces I still have access to; others were probably disposed of by the receiver when the relationship ended badly. Ah well, what's a writer to do but learn to back up her back-up?

When I had children it seemed that the desire to write returned, along with ideas. I started with picture book texts and 'graduated' to short stories and personal essays for adults, as well as an adult novel.

I'm currently pressing forward with revisions to the novel and it's going well. Apart from a period of a few years where I was 'blocked' from completing it, I can't say I've had a hate relationship with words. When the novel writing wasn't working, I still was, just on other things.

Sorry - a bit misleading there on the relationship with words. I have a pretty great relationship with words in my head and words on paper. What's more challenging is getting the right words out of my mouth. I'm definitely not one for off-the-cuff presentations and sometimes my attempts to communicate with others in person - especially when it comes to conflict or problem-solving - don't go too well. I'm misunderstood or don't quite say things the way I intend. And me with a background in English and Psychology. It can be exasperating to say the least!

Does anyone else here struggle with this issue? Great on paper, less great in 'real' life? Please share and end the feeling of aloneness :)

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For more of my writing, please visit www.susan-barclay.ca

My Electronic Doorway To The World Of Writing - Bruce Atchison

Though I've always loved making up stories and telling people about what I discovered, converting those ideas into print was a tedious process for me. My vision is so poor that I have to write with my nose almost touching the page. Typing was also labourious since I couldn't see what I had typed. Worse yet, my mind tends to race ahead of my fingers so that I often end up typing letters of the next word instead of those I had begun to write. My spelling was terrible too. English has so many illogical conventions regarding the way words are spelled  so it was no wonder I made mistakes.

I found the solution to these problems in 1993. Personal computers had been around for a decade but they couldn't read the screen text aloud to me without special, and expensive, equipment. Those green CRT monitors were very hard for me to read as well, even with a strong magnifying glass. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) awarded me a screen reader program and voice synthesizer module so that I could now hear what I typed and make corrections. Though I had to pay one quarter of the price of the equipment, it was well worth it. I still have the voice synthesizer, though the software won't work on PCs newer than the 486 series.

Now that I had a screen reader, I bought a second-hand IBM clone for $700.00 and WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. What a world of writing those tools opened for me. I could type, edit, and format my work without straining to see the typewriter paper or the dim text on a monitor. The spell check function saved me from many embarrassing typos, though homophones still tripped me up. Additionally, I could listen to what I'd typed and hear grammatical mistakes.

The electronic door opened even wider for me in 1995. I took a business writing course from Athabasca University and learned to use bulletin board services. I also accessed the local public library and researched assignment topics with it.

By the end of that year, I joined the growing crowd of Internet users. News groups, web sites, and e-mail all helped me to research freelance writing opportunities. Additionally, I made many good friends online.

Though technology moved ahead, I felt reluctant to give up my 386SX computer and WordPerfect 5.1. When I bought a new computer in 2000, I still used my old faithful PC for writing articles. That lasted until the autumn of 2005 when it finally died on me. Having acquired second hand computers, I continued to use my old software on them. My three paperbacks were written with WordPerfect 5.1, as were most of my freelance articles.

My first two books are featured on the Bruce Atchison's books page. How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity (My most recent memoir) is distributed through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers.